I’ve been thinking about soundtracks recently. I love soundtracks. They’re a great way to find new music that you might have otherwise missed. At the moment, I’m enjoying the instrumental strains of Hannibal and the Lord of the Rings soundtracks. It seems that when these are playing, I can focus on what I need to do; whether that’s writing, studying, or even just relaxing.

Did you know you can take it with you? I’ve been known to complain a lot about getting music stuck in my head, sometimes however, I don’t mind it. If I can take this music with me, if I can take the feeling of calm that I get from it, I find my day is a lot easier.

It’s harder to stay calm though when the calming music is drowned out by the discord of the ‘real life soundtrack’. I don’t know what surrounds you when you don’t get to choose what fills your ears, but at work our soundtrack is usually a disorganised mess of buzzers, yells, and miscellaneous other noises. Peace can be a little hard to find at times.

Do you have your own mental soundtrack? Do you play your own music in your head to keep you calm, or am I the only one that does that? It’s ok if I am, I really don’t mind being different.

Have you heard the saying “music calms the savage beast”? I find in my experience that it rings true. Not that I rock up at zoos with a speaker ready to go. Or even that the people around me are beast-like (stop looking at me like that, I’m not that bad!). If you know aged care, you know that some people can get quite agitated. I have known a few in my time who fit that description at least. Some of these used to loath showers –truthfully, I can’t say I would have responded any differently at the prospect of a stranger baring me to the cold in the morning-. They had a painful way of expressing it though. They liked to scream. Not the calling out once or twice, but persistently! The first time I sang in one of these less than quiet showers, it was more an attempt to ignore the noise, to try replacing the piercing shriek with my own soundtrack. I was shocked when she stopped! She actually started singing along with me! After that, Que Sera became my shower time soundtrack.
I don’t think I’m the next great singer of our time by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve grown accustomed to the laughs and giggles of the residents when I break out in song, usually followed by their own quavering voice as they join in to the songs they know. I have no problem breaking into random song. Those tunes that imbed themselves in my brain don’t bother me too much anymore. I count myself lucky that I get to sing, not only in my shower, but everyone else’s too!
It’s amazing how much a tune can change someone’s day or mood, even if it’s slightly off key.